A lighthouse near the banks of the shore or at sea is the guiding light to bring ships to safe harbor, amidst rushing waters, reefs, or other dangers that are in the path of safety. Before lighthouses, our ancestors built fires high up on the hills to guide the ships, warning of dangers, guiding those at sea.

So it is with fathers or the important people in our lives whose role it is to be our father figure. Sometimes, they don’t show up when we are born, but may present themselves later in our lives, biological fathers or maybe not.  Sometimes, the going may be rough until that father figure appears. Sometimes, they may disappoint us deeply, but they are still our father. We may have to grow to the age of being able to forgive.

These figures are the guiding light to help us on our life path, to warn us of dangers, to show us a safer road, to help us avoid the pitfalls that could crush us, to hold us up when we fall. They can be our superhero’s one day and the next week the strictest person of discipline we have ever encountered. One day we may admire them as our role model and the next week we might wish we had our best friend’s father. Through it all, the one we call ‘father’ in our life is human and will make mistakes; yet, he means only the best for us and will go above and beyond to bring PURPOSE, JOY and POSITIVES into our lives. He is only a man, with his own limitations and skills. And sometimes, it takes us a long long time before we can acknowledge his  role in our lives……maybe not until one day when we become a father.

To each of you who are fathers, father figures, step fathers, grandfathers, foster fathers: May you have a wonderful day of celebrating you, counting your blessings and knowing that you are appreciated and loved. As a father, you may never know how many children you influence, just by your actions and your commitments. You may never know how many lives you touch.

This quote reflects my father. “My father didn’t tell me how to live: he lived, and let me watch him do it”  (Clarence B. Kelland).